Kindergarten
Plants, animals, and people are all living things. They grow and change.
Kindergarten students can name the needs of each group of living things. They completed this life science unit and are beginning a physical science unit.
Two of the kindergarteners' favorite activities in the unit on plants and animals were investigating how roots grow and investigating feathers. When investigating feathers, they were introduced to using hand lenses, small hand-held magnifying glasses, for observing. This leads directly into the first part of the physical science unit: observing objects, which will be followed by a study of how things move.
First and Second Grades
The first and second graders are becoming experts on the planets in our solar system! They have been studying each planet one at a time, learning fun facts about how each planet looks, what it's made of, its moons and rings, the length of its day and year, and much more.
Do you know how many moons Jupiter has? Well, your child does...64 and counting! Do you know the nickname for Uranus? Your child knows it's "The Sideways Planet," because it rotates on its side, making its poles warmer than its equator! Do you know why Jupiter appears to have a "Great Red Spot?" Your child will can tell you it's because there is a giant hurricane on Jupiter that has been raging for over 300 years!
Also, be sure to have your child sing "The Family of the Sun" for you, a song about our solar system that the class has been enjoying.
Third and Fourth Grades
The third and fourth graders have been having a blast with chemical reactions! Over the past few weeks, students have been learning in a very hands-on way about the difference between physical and chemical changes.
In what was perhaps our least dramatic experiment, students observed ice melting, an example of a physical change, as water passed from a solid state to a liquid state. They then observed the liquid over several days,watching it change from a liquid to a gas as it evaporated.
Students also enjoyed an experiment in which they combined steel wool, water, and oxygen in test tubes to observe how a new substance, rust, forms in a chemical reaction. Students learned that chemical changes are permanent and cannot be undone.
In one of their favorite experiments, students mixed vinegar and baking soda in a bottle, with a balloon on top. The balloon expanded as the chemical reaction produced a new substance, in the form of a gas. Students could see evidence of the gas created in this reaction as the balloon expanded before their eyes.
